Books To Read for Creation Gardening

Sources: Books for Creation Gardening 

The most basic book for organic gardening concerns the soil, since everything on land depends on the health of the soil. In the past, the soil was often discussed in terms of its various components and the creatures that lived underneath the surface. But recently, an astonishing work has moved far beyond that to treat the interaction of microbial soil life and its effect on the plants. The book is:

Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition, by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, available on Amazon and Kindle. Hereafter cited as Teaming with Microbes.

          Many people grow alarmed at the number and appetites of insect pests, aphids wrecking a blooming cycle of roses or asparagus beetles devouring asparagus that should be gathering strength for spring spears. Jessica Walliser has written a brilliant, fascinating book on the use of beneficial bugs, how to allow them to feed on pests and take up residence as guardians of the garden. She examines the growth of plants that attract and protect beneficial creatures and shows how they show up for the damage and raise their useful children nearby, to keep predation at low levels.

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control, by Jessica Walliser, available on Amazon and Kindle. Hereafter cited as Beneficial Bugs.

          Gardeners gain from a three-dimension view that includes all the elements of our surroundings. By chance I came across A Blessing of Toads, by Sharon Lovejoy, which reveals her life-long love of gardening, her hours of observation, her drawings, and her knowledge of birds, insects, soil, plants, and toads.

Sharon Lovejoy, A Blessing of Toads: A Guide to Living with Nature. Available on Amazon and Kindle. Hereafter cited as Blessing of Toads.

We are blessed by an artist-in-residence as well. Norma A. Boeckler has provided artwork for this book and many others, as well as having her own line of books on Amazon and Kindle. Her Amazon and Kindle books include:

The Augsburg Confession

Religious Art

The Art of Norma Boeckler

A Treasury of Inspirational Quotes

Her author’s page is found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Norma-Boeckler/e/B00J8AN4LA

Additional Books To Read

          The Grace Dow Library in Midland was my Harvard and Yale in gardening. The most useful publisher was Rodale Press, a pioneer in the organic approach. Their books are detailed and practical.

          Since the Internet is our new, enlarged library, a key term to use is “the soil food web,” a perspective that avoids toxins and sees life as completely connected.

Older Books

Joseph A. Cocannouer. Weeds Guardians of the Soil. 1950. These plants are ideal for renewing the soil, in many different ways.

Wilfred Shewell-Cooper. Compost Gardening. He used vast compost bins to mulch his gardens.

Charles Darwin The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Earthworms, With Observations of Their Habits. 1881. He missed the boat about their use in soil, spending 40 years observing their ability to raise its level and cover boulders.

Edward Faulkner, Plowman’s Folly. 1943. Using green manure instead of churning up the soil.

Albert Howard, An Agricultural Testament, 1943. He promoted compost to renew the soil.

Ruth Stout. How To Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back. 1961. Sister of Rex Stout, she pioneered mulching to feed the soil and suppress weeds.

Gregory L. Jackson, The Wormhaven Gardening Book. 1996. Available on Lulu.com

St. John WELS in New Ulm, Minnesota. Money Programs from Church and Change plus Thrivent

Church and Change has this lucrative arrangement in WELS,
where consultants trained at Fuller Seminary recommend going into debt,
with Church and Changers raising some money to justify the huge debt,
grabbing a huge fee based on the take.
Ethical fund-raisers do not allow taking a cut,
an old Jewish tradition in fund-raising.
Davis was on the board of Church and Change
until I posted his photo and bio. Then he disappeared
from the list - just like Ski.

This is the Jeff Davis, Church and Change, Mark Jeske franchise.

When the congregation cuddles up
with a pan-religious, secular business,
both of them are lying in bed.

What would Jesus do?

WELS, LCMS members - you funded this speech
to Thrivent by a well known financial fraud, adulterer,
and drug addict - Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street.
And you suckers are raising money for ELCA,
who gets the most, and matching funds for Planned Parenthood.

---

Church and Change Conference, 2007

107 CREATING A CULTURE OF GENEROSITY IN YOUR CHURCH

Jeffrey Davis (jeff@joyfulgiving.net) What is a generous church? How do we teach God’s people to excel in the grace of giving? When a congregation is transformed by Jesus’ message that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), what does it look like? Preaching and teaching about money is not something we should ignore. Jesus, on numerous occasions, addressed the issue of money and possessions. He knew that God’s people throughout the ages would face challenges and temptations of wealth. The formula for creating a culture of generosity is very simple – through God’s Word preach it, teach it, and celebrate it! This workshop will share ideas and give examples for churches intent on creating cultures marked by strong financial stewardship and biblically guided generosity. Jeff’s ideas for God’s leaders on creating cultures of generosity within Lutheran congregations will be helpful and biblically based.Jeffrey Davis has served the Lutheran church as teacher, administrator and presently, as consultant. He is owner of Cornerstone Stewardship Ministry, a consulting firm that teaches stewardship.108 A POSITIVE VIEW OF BELIEVERFS (sic) IS REALISTIC…AND PRACTICAL!


Heart In Focus - Personal Finances Training Course 

This repeating course guides individual members in the basics of wise faith-focused finances for their daily lives. The course will cover the Christian attitudes behind healthy financial decisions and practical advice for giving, saving, debt removal and financially wise lifestyles. Special workshops lead by Cornerstone Stewardship Ministry leader Mr. Jeff Davis and Adult Discipleship Administrator Rev David Kehl are offered throughout the WELS Districts upon request. Heart in Focus workbooks are now available at Northwestern Publishing House to train local leaders to lead this course as an ongoing part of an annual spiritual growth curriculum.

WELS Kingdom Workers

BOARD MEMBER
Jeff Davis
csconsultants@charter.net

"How about a juicy grant for Church and Change Doebler?"

FIC Author too? I thought these guys had no influence?

---

Saturday, January 28, 2012

WELS Church and Change - Still Operating

Lutherans pay me to explain this to them,
and they love it.

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "WELS Church and Change Basics. Milwaukee Members A...":

The C and C apostates always push the envelope. Then, when they are called out on the carpet for their misdeeds, they act clueless. They knew what Leonard Sweet stood for, but they invited him anyway. At my former congregation, I plunged a dagger into the heart when I confronted the congregation president about the connection that Jeff Davis has with C and C. This was after I informed him that they had invited Ed Stetzer to speak at a C and C conference.

Jeff Davis, Cornerstone,
Church and Change board.

The president claimed that when he talked to Mr. Davis about it, he was told that Stetzer was "dis-invited" due to the controversy that was created. So, Stetzer was invited to speak. But, the C and C'ers claimed afterward that he never was invited. So, with this level of dishonesty, why would you pay Cornerstone big bucks to show you how to fleece the members of your congregation? The president also defended Stetzer by stating that old Ed had actually written a paper that was critical of the Emergent Church movement. My humble opinion would be that Stetzer more closely resembles a "Crypto Emergent" and the C and C guys use tactics very close to the Crypto Calvinists.

Ed Stetzer, on the right, is a typical, angry, Emergent Church promoter.

WELS - "We love Stetzer. He has a Fuller drive-by degree
and he cannot spell either."

***

GJ - I kept the Stetzer invitation in the news. Finally the Conference of Pussycats told Church and Change to withdraw the invitation - something that never happened with Leonard Sweet or Martin Marty. The radicals depend on things blowing over. They hate seeing the story pursued.

The first step was denying that Church and Change invited Stetzer, so I reproduced the link and the wording of Stetzer's Tweet and blog. In both places he bragged about being hired by Church and Change and a Missouri Synod group. Stetzer had both events on his web calendar as well. That invitation happened after Kudu Don Patterson took a group of WELS workers to Exponential in Orlando, Florida. Stetzer was a featured speaker there. I am sure that was a co-inky-dink that the invitation happened AFTER the Exponential Conference.

That is the fun thing about narcissists on the Net - they leave footprints everywhere. Stetzer even made fun of conservative Lutherans while boasting about being hired by them.

After the invitation was withdrawn (which meant paying a kill fee), the Changers said it was a lie that Stetzer was ever invited. I get contacts from WELS pastors who have heard I was lying about something. So I sent him the link to the Twitter and blog.

The ending of WELS Church and Change this time is just as much of a lie as it was under Gurgle, who claimed the same thing. At that time an innocent told me that Gurgle ordered it shut down. I said, "Then why are they registering people for their next C and C conference on the WELS.net website?" Response - "They are?" I provided the link. Like I said, narcissists on the Net leave their footprints everywhere.

Under SP Schroeder, Church and Change says they are shut down, but they leave their website and documents available for those who know. Mark Schroeder promotes and protects the Church and Changers, who have changed the color of their fleece but not their agenda.

KJV Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

WELS Church and Change.
Time of Grace.
Men of His Word.
Grace in Action.
WELS Prayer Network.
Jars of Clay.
Cornerstone.
Youth Conference.
Etc. Etc. Etc.

Introduction - Creation Gardening - Creation Is Not a Choice Between Science and Faith

Creation Is Not a Choice Between Science and Faith

We have grown up during an era where science has pitted itself against the Christian Faith, and many believers have felt it wise to bow to this demand. As the complexity of the universe has grown, the temptation to ascribe these infinite dependencies to evolution has also grown. One option is to say that God created over billions of years, making the Biblical day last almost forever. But language betrays us. When explanations fail, even in the most evolutionary programs, a bird feather is called “a miracle.” During the dramatic episodes of Shark Week on TV, the narrator says, “Suddenly, there appeared a perfectly designed killing machine.” That sounds like intelligent design, a concept for foreign to evolution that it gives the science mavens fits. Most embarrassing, when scientists describe the marvels of nature, they have to say “creature,” the product of Creation, rather than “evolute,” the product of evolution.

Science is never against the Christian Faith, except when pitting its philosophy against the religion itself. This failure point is where science cannot fill the gap, not in facts, but in purpose. Science cannot offer a purpose for anything, so the scientist cannot offer a reason why the ichneumon wasp is a terror for pests on our plants - or even why the pests are good for feeding the beneficial creatures.

For that reason, the question of purpose, we can mine the sciences forever, without subordinating faith to reason. I grew up in a household devoted to science, because my mother taught the subject in elementary school and lived it in all her hobbies. We had pet rats in our home, left from the food experiments she conducted for her classes: three rats given three different diets. We always got the scrawny one who was fed candy and junk food. We had a pet skunk and two possums. Cats gave birth on the kitchen floor and rats had babies in the comfort of their cages. When I was dating the future Mrs. Greg Jackson, she got used to finding hatched moths on the curtains, pupae in the refrigerator at home. My mother knew wild flowers, built compost for her garden, and captured bugs to show us children. Her students and their parents said, “She knows everything!”

Farming is in my blood. My paternal grandfather supposedly invented a seedless tomato, which was lost by my uncle. My maternal grandfather was the first to earn a degree in agriculture at the University of Illinois. Both grandfathers ran successful farms until the Great Depression and government intervention wrecked the agricultural economy.

I began gardening in earnest in the 1980s, in Midland, Michigan. I had a parsonage yard that needed a lot of help but little cash to spend on it. Chemicals cost a lot, and I knew from the Dow scientists that fertilizer cost pennies to manufacture while selling for dollars. The local library was heavily funded and contained every gardening book for adults, every nature book for children that anyone would want to read. If a title came up in reading, it was on the shelves of the Grace Dow Library. That led me directly into organic gardening and the connection with Creation taught in the Scriptures.

There are many ideas about the beginning of the universe, but only one could be correct. The answer is so plain that modernists have taken great pains to modify, dilute, and explain it away. A compromise with the culture of the day, starting in the 19^th century, has led Protestant and Catholic leaders into bartering Genesis away for a bowl of cold soup. God created the universe through His Word and will, and the Son of God was that Creating Word.

When God said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” the act of Creation began with God the Father willing and the Son speaking the universe into existence, the Holy Spirit hovering over Creation. This Creation is clearly taught in John 1:3

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

This verse also speaks of the power and efficacy of the Word, never lacking in divine energy to work God’s will, always accomplishing and prospering His purpose. Isaiah 55:8-10

 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The power and efficacy of the Word are foundational for the Old and New Testaments. Just as the universe began with Creation, so are we as Christian believers “new creations” in the words of St. Paul.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

The power of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel Word creates, sustains, and renews faith, just as God sustains, renews, and sustains all life. The soil is an excellent example of this, a parable in front of our eyes. When man destroys this source of all life on dry land, God renews its fertility with years of opportunistic weed growth, the very kinds blown in by the wind and thriving on poor, thin, wasted soil. The growth above builds the soil with leafy matter rotting into the soil. The roots hold the poor soil in place, slowing down wind and water erosion, opening up channels for rain and rotting away to feed the soil and its creatures.

          When John Newton was reduced to slavery and serving on slave ships, his life seemed without purpose, sterile, and meaningless. When a violent storm at sea and the threat of drowning caused him to call out for God, the living seed of the Gospel began to grow in his heart, leading him eventually to serving as an Anglican pastor, the author of “Amazing Grace” and “ Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”